definitely backsweeten! makes a huge difference, especially if you go for some nice apple juice to backsweeten (or caramel syrup! tho i'd always add a bit of apple juice for some extra apple character).
have a crack at stove top pasteuriseing for a tasty sparkling cider, its so worth it!
i dont think its anything to fret about, i'm no expert and i dont brew all grain but i partial mash with up to 50% of the bill as raw grain and get quite alot of break material and bits of grain that tend to end up in the fermenter. never noticed any huge problems, but i use whirlfloc so it all...
dont know if this helps at all, but i let my recent cider ferment for about 6 months and it carbed up no problem, and fast too, no extra yeast added. not sure how much an extra 6 months would affect things. can't hurt tho, and as said, cheap too.
Hey waterfowler, i'm an ale brewer but recently brewed up a nice batch of apple n elderflower cider.
i had a similar problem, i wanted it to be backsweetened ( without artificial non-fermentable sugars) AND to be carbonated.
i sweetened with apple juice, plus about 95g of cane sugar for...